18 till I die!!!

“I went to play a cricket match, there i got a catch.

The catch was easy, but I was lazy. I dropped the catch and we lost the match.”

These lines were very popular with my friends and me way back during our school days. Now after almost twenty years these lines still bring a smile on my face and rekindles all those fond memories of those wonderful years.We were a group of 4 guys ( we studied in a only boys school). All of us were of modest backgrounds but with a zest for life and everything it has to offer.Life was easy then,things weren’t that expensive and all of us had our own two wheelers(cycles to be precise). I still remember , we used to wear our best outfits on weekends and cycle around 10km to reach the upmarket areas of our city,park our cycles in the alleys and walk around as if we have come in the best wheels in town.Bird watching (not the feathered type)was a favourite past time and the upmarket areas of our city have an abundance of them.

Now as I reflect upon life and how it is different from those joyous years, I realize how I am missing out on those small things which meant so much to us. Of course, I am not the same fifteen year old now,age and status has caught up but still I think just once in a while I should let go and do all these silly things I have done as a fifteen year old.

As the joke goes “Being on a diet doesn’t mean you can’t look at the Menu card”. I guess being a husband and father shouldn’t stop me from letting the boy in me out once in a while. For starters, I got myself a BMX cycle(the salesman at the shop couldn’t believe that I had bought it for myself). Once or twice a week I go cycling for an hour or so,I do get a lot of stares from people but I enjoy it all the same. I now realize that each one of us should indulge in some activity or other which would keep the child in us alive. That could be anything like playing games with the children in your society, playing doll games with your daughter or a game of football with your son.Doing any of these activities would definitely lighten up your mood and the added benefit is you will also burn up a few calories.

As Bryan Adams say in his song”Eighteen till I die”–someday I’ll be eighteen going on sixty five.Let us live young till our last day. Afterall age is a state of mind.You are as old as you think you are!!!